Understanding and reducing stress in dogs left home alone

Fear or phobia of events during owner absence

A dog may have become fearful of or even phobic of an event that has occurred while in the home — particularly if the dog was without human company at the time (Horwitz, 2009). If owners are absent, the dog may anticipate that such an event will occur again, leading to anxiety while owners are away. Such dogs may have developed coping strategies that involve getting to specific parts of the home (e.g. the thunder phobic dog that finds relief from the sound-proofing provided by access to the under-bed space), but if access is denied through being left alone and trapped in an alternative part of the home (e.g. being locked in a kitchen), then vocalization and destruction may result as part of the dog's attempt to escape confinement and reach a place of safety. The dog may eventually become phobic of being placed in the confined area, going to excessive lengths (including aggression towards owners) to avoid confinement. Such dogs will need extensive behavioural modification to enable them to cope with their home environment, and assumptions that they can be treated in exactly the same manner as the dog that suffers from separation anxiety will lead to considerable welfare infringements for the dog and potential danger for the owner (Beerda et al, 1999).

Lack of preparation for solitude or loneliness

Not every young dog that finds itself in a home where one or more family members are constantly present, or whose owner makes a specific effort to take the dog wherever they go, will develop a hyper-attachment relationship with their owner — but such arrangements pre-dispose the dog to failing to learn to cope with periods of solitude (Riccomini, 2010). Not only may such a dog lack the necessary coping strategies for time spent in isolation but, particularly if it has been incompletely environmentally referenced, due to a lack of thorough exposure to a wide range of environmental and domestic stimuli during the socialization period), it is likely to pay excessive amounts of attention to novel events around and outside the home that it would normally ignore during the presence of its owners (Figure 1). Such dogs can easily become anxious, but they may also develop fears that lead to phobias (Casey, 2002).

Many dogs co exist with other dogs as part of multi-dog households. Although these dogs may appear to cope well during owner absence, their coping may be highly dependent on the proximity of other socially and environmentally competent dogs within the home. As their companions become older, such dogs are increasingly likely to be left in isolation as partners spend time in veterinary practices, die or are euthanazed. Without specific efforts by the owners of dogs in multi-dog households to encourage individual dogs to develop skills to deal with social isolation, such dogs can experience extreme distress when left alone.

Dogs that lack preparation for solitude may become distressed and inactive during separations, rather than vocalizing or being destructive (Overall, 2000). In many ways the welfare of these dogs is of greater concern as their distress is likely to remain unnoticed by owners (Mendl, 2010). Geriatric dogs can become increasingly pre-disposed to any of the above problems as their previous coping strategies for owner absence become increasingly tested by age-related anxiety problems and cognitive decline (Horwitz, 2009). Although it falls outside the scope of this article to explain the preventative steps involved, it should be clear from the above that the early preparation of puppies to spend time in solitude without experiencing distress would help to reduce the number of dogs that experience separation-related anxiety.

Fear or anxiety of owner's return

Many of the coping strategies adopted by dogs that are isolated from their social group involve behaviours that owners find extremely distressing — excessive vocalization leading to neighbour complaints, destruction to the fabric of the home leading to regular and expensive repairs, house soiling requiring immediate intervention on owner return after a tiring day of work. Consequently it is not surprising that some owners fail to understand their dog's behavioural motivation and resort to punishment on their return to the home (Bowen and Heath, 2005). The dog cannot be expected to associate this delayed punishment with the eliciting event and punishment will not resolve the underlying problem. However canine anxiety will be enhanced by the rapid learning associating owner return with likely punishment, leading the dog to engage in displacement or appeasement-based behaviours that can be misinterpreted by the owner, who may think that the dog ‘knows that it has done wrong’ (Curtis, 2007). Such misunderstandings can intensify both the nature and the intensity of predicted punishment (Horwitz, 2009).

With dogs that are distressed about an owner's return, the initiating problem for the dog's behaviour during owner absence is likely to be one of the other issues discussed in this article and the behaviour normally associated with separation will occur early in the separation period. Once the dog becomes fearful or anxious of the owner's return, there is likely to be a further onset of problem behaviour prior to the predicted time of owner return — further fuelling owner distress and misunderstanding.

Frustration

Frustration may be defined as a failure to receive the expected reward (Mills, 2010). The neural circuitry and stress response associated with frustration is closely related to that of anxiety and fear and may frequently result in an animal becoming aggressive (Notari, 2009). As frustration effectively involves the removal of the expected reward, the state can also be considered to be similar to that associated with negative punishment, e.g. failure to receive the expected emotional support from an owner (frustration) compared with the removal of a reinforcing stimulus such as the owner leaving the home (negative punishment) (Lindsay, 2000). Some dogs will be better at coping with incidents that involve frustration than others, and it is reasonable to assume that some breeds (e.g. terriers — a breed that tends to be pro-active in dealing with negative stimuli) will have lower thresholds for exhibiting frustration than others.

Dogs experience frustration in many contexts. Some may find it extremely difficult to cope when an anticipated outing with their owner does not occur, leading to inappropriate social responses as owners try to leave; others may become destructive towards nearby items such as nearby furnishings, as a coping mechanism in response to events that occur outside the home during the owner's absence, e.g. passing dogs or delivery personnel. Dogs that regularly experience frustration in a particular context may become anxious in the presence of environmental predictors of a frustrated state (e.g. regular family activities that predict preparations to leave the home), leading to the development of other anxiety-related behaviour during owner absence (Lindsay, 2000).

Opportunistic destruction

An article on ‘home alone’ problems would not be complete without mention of the dog that appears to look forward to owner absence as an opportunity to gain access to resources, or to engage in behavioural responses that are unavailable during the presence of owners. Such dogs may have a high scavenging drive or may have underlying anxieties or frustrations associated with events occurring outside the home. If obedient, such dogs will have been trained to interrupt such behavioural sequences or to subdue them (Hart et al, 2006), but without the presence of such behavioural guidance, the trigger becomes a stimulus for behaviours such as scavenging or frustration-related destruction of cushions and post. However, the resultant behaviour can lead to such dogs being easily confused with those severely distressed individuals that will destroy pillows and cushions or that will target personal belongings in an attempt to gain greater connection to the absent owner (Lindsay, 2001).

Stress and coping

The negative emotions of anxiety, fear or phobia that can be associated with the dog's experience of being at home without its owner initiate the physiological reactions that are collectively known as the stress response (Carlson, 1998) — physiological changes that are intended to maximize the dog's potential for surviving the experience. The behavioural response to stress has been termed the ‘fght or fight response’ (Cannon, 1927), but many species are capable of adopting a range of responses to stress including a wide range of displacement behaviours. These behaviours are thought to occur largely unconsciously, and when dogs find themselves trapped in an environment from which they need to escape such behaviours may include:

All of the above behaviours can be considered to be coping strategies. Stress is an essential part of an animal's preservation skills — as long as the animal has a coping strategy that enables it to feel that it is dealing with the stress inducing situation the degree of distress is to some extent alleviated (Carlson, 1998).

Coping and choice

The stress response evolved to enable animals to respond to acute stressors; but many animals are exposed to stressors at a chronic level — meeting them continually or regularly. These individuals have to cope or deal with the aversive stimulus and coping is the mechanism that the animal develops to enable it to do so by reducing the effects of the aversive stimulus (Mills et al, 2010). Consistent forms of coping behaviour are termed coping strategies, and so it can be said that behaviours such as destruction and vocalization are part of the range of coping strategies that dogs can develop to manage their level of distress during owner absence.

To some extent then, the dog's welfare during owner absence is further impaired if it is prevented from engaging in coping strategies, but when the coping strategy selected by the dog is incompatible with the maintenance of a realistic human–animal bond, it can be hard for the owner to retain the dog within the home.

Coping with stress requires a freedom of choice to engage in coping strategies, but not all coping strategies will be aversive to the owner. Immediate first aid and preventative advice that enables owners to offer a choice of coping strategies that are acceptable to both dog and owner can enable the human–animal bond to remain intact.

Giving distressed dogs choices

A well-recognized coping strategy for anxiety, fear and phobia problems is that of fight and avoidance to an environment where the animal can regain its physiological and emotional equilibrium (Carlson, 1998). One of the greatest problems for the dog that finds itself ‘home alone’ is that it also finds itself trapped in an environment that does not offer the opportunities for fight or avoidance of the stimuli that trigger the on-going stress response. The most obvious environment that enables a dog to manage its level of emotional arousal is a safe and secure den. Although the dog is likely to have been left in an area with ready access to its bed, few dog beds fulfil the criteria for a den in size, shape or position. Despite the fact that many dogs regularly find positions within the home to rest that are independent of their official resting site, owners rarely compare the design or position of these sites with the bed that they have provided.

A den is the ultimate ‘safe place’ and has a roof, is relatively small, is situated in a quiet part of the room yet where the dog can be aware of family activity, and it is sound proofed. Calvo et al (2011) have validated a scale for measuring responses to firework and thunder noises in dogs, which includes indicators of distress and coping behaviours. The authors found that anxiety signs, as measured by their scale, were significantly lower (p=0.03) in dogs that were given unrestricted access to a hiding place (Bowen, personal communication, 2011). This research has shown not only the usefulness of the den in assisting noise sensitive dogs in managing their sensitivity, but it has also suggested that the presence of a den enables dogs to become more confident in their ability to remain within a stressful environment, for longer, without experiencing stress.

By watching where the dog selects to rest and ensuring that a suitable den is available in these environments, the dog begins to develop a choice over how it deals with stress-inducing situations (Figure 2). A den can be a simple cardboard box covered in an old duvet, placed under the coffee table that the dog selects to lie under during noisy incidents or it can be an expensive, sound-proofed, aesthetically pleasing design. The most important criteria is that it is placed where the dog would choose to go when experiencing stress. Once the owner has introduced the den (or dens) by sitting beside them and encouraging the dog to enter and rest within (possibly by using treats or toys) it is important that the dog has constant access to the den. The credentials of the den as the ‘safe place’ where emotions can be most easily managed can be enhanced through the use of an Adaptil (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) diffuser (Ceva, Amersham, UK), plugged in adjacent to the opening of the den. The presence of the pheromone creates a sense of security and helps accentuate the concept of safety that the den provides (Gaultier et al, 2005).

In addition to the provision of and familiarity with a safe place, dogs that experience emotional difficulties while left alone will benefit from being taught to enjoy time spent independently of their owner (Horwitz, 2009). As the dog's primary objective, when not sleeping, is to gain access to sufficient food for its daily nutritional requirements, some lateral thinking about the size, timing and access to meals can assist the dog in reducing its reliance on social companions (Figure 3). Anxious and fearful dogs can exhibit inappetence, so owners should initially introduce multiple, short opportunities to engage in puzzle feeding and food searching activities while owners are within proximity. Owners can gradually leave the dog for increasing periods of time, first while they remain in the home, but gradually as they spend increasing amounts of time in the garden and outside the home (Zulch, 2010). This provides the dog with self-appeasing chewing activities that do not involve destruction of household items.

If possible, both of the coping strategies mentioned above should be available for every absence but once a safe place is established, access should never be denied.